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The Simple Question Nobody's Asking About Net Neutrality
From ACM Opinion

The Simple Question Nobody's Asking About Net Neutrality

President Obama rattled the internet this week when he unloaded his opinion on net neutrality, the notion that all internet traffic should be treated equally.

Reasons to Land on a Comet: What the Rosetta Mission Can Learn
From ACM Opinion

Reasons to Land on a Comet: What the Rosetta Mission Can Learn

After a journey that took more than a decade, the world is scheduled to witness a first when the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission attempts to land a small...

Why We're All Beta Testers Now
From ACM Opinion

Why We're All Beta Testers Now

I taught a class a few years ago at Columbia Business School called "What Makes a Hit a Hit—and a Flop a Flop."

These Are 3 Breakthrough Science Ideas You'll Be Talking About in 2015
From ACM Opinion

These Are 3 Breakthrough Science Ideas You'll Be Talking About in 2015

For anyone who has ever said that all the STEM professions need is something to make them "cool" in order to attract more young people, look no further than ...

Will Moocs Be Flukes?
From ACM Opinion

Will Moocs Be Flukes?

On July 23rd, 1969, Geoffrey Crowther addressed the inaugural meeting of the Open University, a British institution that had just been created to provide an alternative...

North Korea: Surfing the Net in the World's Most Isolated Nation
From ACM Opinion

North Korea: Surfing the Net in the World's Most Isolated Nation

What's the point of a computer in a hermit country sealed off from the internet?

Artificial Intelligence as a Threat
From ACM Opinion

Artificial Intelligence as a Threat

Ebola sounds like the stuff of nightmares. Bird flu and SARS also send shivers down my spine.

Invasion of the Data Snatchers
From ACM Opinion

Invasion of the Data Snatchers

New technologies are making it easier for private companies and the government to learn about everything we do—in our homes, in our cars, in stores, and within...

The Surreal Task of Landing on a Comet
From ACM Opinion

The Surreal Task of Landing on a Comet

On November 12th 2014 the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission will eject the small robotic lander Philae on a trajectory that should take it down to the surface...

The Web Is a Terrorist's Command-and-Control Network of Choice
From ACM Opinion

The Web Is a Terrorist's Command-and-Control Network of Choice

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) is the first terrorist group whose members have grown up on the internet.

Human Spaceflight: Find Asteroids to Get to Mars
From ACM Opinion

Human Spaceflight: Find Asteroids to Get to Mars

Interplanetary flight is the next giant leap for humans in space. Yet consensus on even the smallest steps forward has proven elusive.

Demystifying the Mooc
From ACM Opinion

Demystifying the Mooc

When massive open online courses first grabbed the spotlight in 2011, many saw in them promise of a revolutionary force that would disrupt traditional higher education...

Why Rite Aid and Cvs Stopped Taking Apple Pay
From ACM Opinion

Why Rite Aid and Cvs Stopped Taking Apple Pay

The introduction of Apple Pay last Monday was widely described as the dawn of a new era for smartphone payments.

The Three Breakthroughs That Have Finally ­nleashed AI on the World
From ACM Opinion

The Three Breakthroughs That Have Finally ­nleashed AI on the World

A few months ago I made the trek to the sylvan campus of the IBM research labs in Yorktown Heights, New York, to catch an early glimpse of the fast-arriving, long...

When Iphones Ring, the Economy Listens
From ACM Opinion

When Iphones Ring, the Economy Listens

Gloomy economic news and the wild swings of the stock market may be getting you down. But at least you can count on this: We’ve entered the sweet spot of the ...

Could Robots Become Too Cute For Comfort?
From ACM Opinion

Could Robots Become Too Cute For Comfort?

Would you share your innermost secret with a robot?

Christine Kenneally's 'invisible History of the Human Race'
From ACM Opinion

Christine Kenneally's 'invisible History of the Human Race'

Of Christine Kenneally’s father’s father—a man neither Kenneally nor her father ever knew, a man who did the deed requisite to reproduction and promptly vanished—she...

Okcupid's Xoxo For Big Surveillance
From ACM Opinion

Okcupid's Xoxo For Big Surveillance

Christian Rudder is a good writer—so good, in fact, it's easy for readers of Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One’s Looking) to be smitten by his engaging...

Isaac Asimov Mulls 'how Do People Get New Ideas?'
From ACM Opinion

Isaac Asimov Mulls 'how Do People Get New Ideas?'

In 1959, I worked as a scientist at Allied Research Associates in Boston.

To Siri, With Love
From ACM Opinion

To Siri, With Love

Just how bad a mother am I? I wondered, as I watched my 13-year-old son deep in conversation with Siri.
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